Wednesday, March 31, 2010

"Our Family Wedding" is Nothing to Celebrate



Is there anything funnier than a soon-to-be-slaughtered goat getting hopped up on Viagra? Or the sight of two grown men constantly screaming at each other like five-year-olds on the playground? Or the idea of a marriage between two people, one African American, one Hispanic, doing anything other than setting off a firestorm of family drama? According to the makers of "Our Family Wedding," nope.


Starring America Ferrera, Lance Gross ("Tyler Perry's House of Payne"), Carlos Mencia, Regina King and, inexplicably, Forrest Whitaker, the film follows a newly engaged couple, Lucia (Ferrera) and Marcus (Gross), as they return to their childhood homes in Los Angeles to announce their engagement. What should be the happiest time of their lives turns into pure chaos at their equally headstrong, egotistical and bigoted fathers, Miguel and Brad (Mencia and Whitaker), go ballistically head to head. Let the hilarity ensue.


Directed by Rick Famuyiwa ("The Wood," "Brown Sugar") from a screenplay he co-wrote, stereotypes flow heavily from either side of the cultural divide as the young couple struggles to pull together a wedding in a matter of weeks. Lucia, tightly wound and meek, and Marcus, unyeildingly angelic, follow a poor man's plot of "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner," though, thankfully, not one as destitute as Ashton Kutcher's "Guess Who." Slapsticky and trite, the film's few bright spots come in the form of comedienne Anjelah Johnson as Lucia's sister and Regina King as Brad's long time lawyer and potential lover. At least there's one positive, "Our Family Wedding" is instantly forgettable.


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